b. Comes out of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia was not as stable as Egypt and had
a lot more hardships)

b. Basis
of Near Eastern Wisdom Literature: the Old experience life and then transmit
wisdom to the young

vi. Ancient Israelite Wisdom Literature

a. Traditionally
& skeptical wisdom

b. Basis

1. Life is not threatening because there is order

2. Order is good, therefore God is good

3. Humans are subject to patterns of cause and effect

4. Foolish action -> Disruption -> Failure

5. Wise action -> Harmony -> Success

vii. Old Testament Wisdom Tradition

a. Proverbs

1. Type: Traditional

2. Theme: experience can be relied upon

b. Job

1. Type: Skeptical (of Traditional wisdom)

2. Job's Friends: Traditional

3. Theme: do not absolutize experience

c. Ecclesiastes

1. Type: Skeptical (of Job)

2. Theme: limitations on human experience

c. Wisdom literature has a tendency to be in dialogue with previous wisdom
literature

i. Proverbs <- Job <- Ecclesiastes <- New Testament (James)

ii. James, therefore, is wisdom literature in the New Testament

4. Theme
of James

a. You can believe what you can but it does not matter unless you do
anything with it

b. Ethics: how do we deal with each other

i. Power of Speech

ii. Poverty/wealth

B. Author

1. Identified explicitly as "James" (1:1)

2. James is a very common name - we have no distinction

3. James
New Testament

a. James, son of Zebedee (Mt 4:21)

b. James, son of Alphaeus (Mt 10:3)

c. James, father of Judas (Lk 6:16)

d. James, son of Mary (Mt 27:56)

4. "Symbolic James" Theory - in Greek, James literally means Jacob and Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes so it could mean that the author of this book was in a sense saying, "the father of the Jews saysÉ"

5. James,
son of Mary most probable author

a. James' concern

i. Not concerned with Christ, or salvation

ii. Concerned only with what you do

iii. What you do is very Jewish

b. Written to Jews in the Diaspora and James was a the leader of the
Jerusalem church which would connect it very closely with Jews living outside
of Judah (and Jerusalem)

6.
Problems with James, son of Mary authorship

a. Date - many people feel this is much later than 60 AD

b. James is a cognitive of Judah - so it could be saying "The Jew writing to the Jews"

C. Audience

1. "To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion" (1:1)

2. Twelve
Tribes = Israelites

3. Dispersion
= Diaspora

a. Diaspora was any Jew living outside of Judah (mainly Jerusalem)

b. These were Christ believing Jews that were not living in the vicinity of
Jerusalem

4. Assembly place is called the "synagogue" (2:2)

D. Date

1. If written by James, son of Mary (before mid 60's AD)

2. Most
scholars put the book after 70-110 AD

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction." -2Timothy 4:2